RICHMOND — Police arrested a local man Tuesday night after he allegedly assaulted his band mate with a BB gun, took a sport utility vehicle and crashed it on Route 24, damaged a police cruiser and assaulted an officer as he was taken into custody. Jedediah Wasilewski, 36, of Richmond, was charged with armed robbery, operating after suspension, assault, assault on an officer, criminal mischief and violation of probation. He could be charged with operating under the influence, pending the results of a blood test, according to Richmond Chief Scott MacMaster. It all started at band practice, MacMaster said. Wasilewski was at a friend’s house in a mobile home park on Hatch Street to practice with other musicians who are in a band together. MacMaster said Wasilewski asked a friend for a ride to a residence where he was staying on Beedle Road so he could get his guitar amplifier, but the friend refused. Wasilewski then grabbed a BB gun, struck a Richmond man with it and pinned the man against a vehicle. Wasilewski then took an SUV belonging to someone else at the residence around 10 p.m. Tuesday. Soon thereafter he crashed the 2005 Ford Escape on Route 24, which is also known as River Road, near Knickerbocker Road. No other vehicles were involved in the crash. (read more at the Kennebec Journal)

Top actors, pop stars, sports heroes and veteran comics turned out in force on Sunday for a special broadcast celebrating the 40th anniversary of the seminal late night comedy program, “Saturday Night Live” during a marathon live show. The 3½-hour show on NBC, which has aired the Saturday night staple since 1975 and launched the careers of comedy stars ranging from Eddie Murphy to Martin Short, featured a series of rapid-fire clips of classic SNL bits, with the show’s veterans reprising or reinventing their most-loved sketches. Ostensibly hosted by Steve Martin, the anniversary show included appearances by some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks. Dozens of cast members from the checkered history of “Saturday Night Live” were on hand, notably first-season regulars Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris. (read more at the Bangor Daily News)

A 38-year-old convicted sex offender is barred from having a computer and going online for the next year after he pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to harassing young girls by contacting them on Facebook and Instagram even after they told him to stop. Sumner P. Swett of Owls Head was arrested by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and charged with harassment by telephone or by electronic communication device. Swett pleaded guilty to the charge on Wednesday. The district attorney’s office agreed to a deferred disposition in which for the next year, Swett will be required to undergo counseling, agree to random searches and be barred from having a computer or using the Internet. If he adheres to terms of those conditions, Swett will be sentenced to one year in jail with all but 30 days suspended. (read more at the Lincoln County News)

PORTLAND, MAINE — For nearly three weeks, the faces of Portland police officers “Graham and Joe” have been all over the place — in the real world and the virtual one. In a revival of the Portland Police Department’s walking patrol, which in recent years has been dormant during the winter, officers Graham Hults and Joe Chappell have embraced the chilly duty with zeal, stopping often to listen to constituents’ stories or problems and posting prolifically about their travels on the department’s Facebook page. Signing off on each social media post as simply “Graham and Joe” with the tag #footbeat, the duo has put up pictures of themselves playing with neighborhood children, cuddling puppies and visiting business owners. Nationwide, police have been at the center of several divisive controversies in 2014, including deadly altercations in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City, as well as criticisms over the amount of military equipment departments now use nationwide. Even in Maine, police have been under heavy scrutiny for their inventories of military weapons and vehicles, and for disproportionately high arrest rates of blacks. (read more at the Bangor Daily News)

KNOX — A Unity man who allegedly tried to place a lit cigarette into the open gas tank of a generator during a reported domestic assault was arrested Saturday. Ulysses Queener, 50, went to a home on Morse Road in Knox at about 6 p.m. Saturday to “confront his ex-girlfriend over a generator that was at the residence,” according to a report from the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office. The woman had taken the generator and was using it at the home, but Queener thought the generator should be with him, Lt. Jason Trundy said Monday. “There was a verbal, then a physical confrontation,” Trundy said. During the argument, Queener allegedly pushed the woman on top of the generator, then tried to put a lit cigarette into the gas tank. Although he later told deputies that he had meant to throw the cigarette on the ground, other people in the home who witnessed the altercation said that it looked as if Queener wanted to put it in the open gas tank. His motives weren’t explicitly stated, Trundy said, but seemed suspicious to the responding officers. (read more at the Lewiston Sun Journal)

It was the summer of 1966 – at the height of the Cold War and Vietnam, with the Civil Rights Movement in full bloom – when 23-year-old Richard Loren embarked on a pop cultural journey with some of the most influential rock icons of the day. That transformative time was reflected in the revolutionary spirit of the music being made. “Bob Dylan turned the Beatles on to some dope and we went from ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ to ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,'” recalled Loren in an interview from his home in Nobleboro. “Rock was a movement then. It was the catalyst for change, the driving force behind the counter-culture.” Over the next decade and a half, Loren went from booking hot new rock acts like the Doors and Jefferson Airplane in New York City to organizing the Grateful Dead’s legendary concerts at the pyramids of Giza in 1978.

ROCKLAND, Maine — A Thomaston man only will [sic] receive fines for striking a seal with his skiff this past summer, sharing Suboxone with his fiancee and driving to endanger if he adheres to terms of a deal approved in court Friday. Justice William Stokes accepted a plea deal worked out between the Maine attorney general’s office and defense attorney in the case against 27-year-old Adam L. Dodge, who was charged by the Maine Marine Patrol with killing or injuring an animal with a motor vehicle. Defense attorney Eric “Rick” Morse said his client agreed to plead guilty to that charge and two others as part of a compromise. Morse said his client only admits he hit a seal while coming into shore from his lobster boat in Rockport Harbor on Aug. 13. Morse said several people on land thought Dodge intentionally turned the skiff into the seal while heading to shore. Dodge also pleaded guilty to a felony charge of furnishing Suboxone in September in Thomaston, as well as driving to endanger on Aug. 21 at the Union Fairgrounds. A charge of endangering the welfare of a child, which was connected to the Aug. 21 incident, was dismissed. (read more at the Bangor Daily News)

WASHINGTON — A man jumped the White House fence on Wednesday evening and was attacked by Secret Service dogs before being arrested, a Secret Service spokesman said. “Dogs got him,” the spokesman said, referring to the intruder. Video showed Secret Service agents surrounding the man on the north lawn of the White House, which was put on lockdown for about 90 minutes. The man punched one of the dogs that attacked him, as seen in the video. The incident came roughly a month after an intruder armed with a knife scaled the White House fence and made it inside the executive mansion, raising questions about security levels at the heavily guarded complex and spurring the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Julia Pierson. The man climbed the fence around 7:15 p.m. and was apprehended shortly thereafter. (keep reading at the Bangor Daily News)

PARIS — Police said a 50-year-old Mexico man is charged with trying to strangle a speaker at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting Monday night. Wilfred T. Merrill of Mexico Avenue is charged with felony aggravated assault, refusal to submit to arrest, attempting to elude an officer, criminal speeding and operating after suspension, according to a complaint Mexico police filed with a court clerk. Merrill was arrested on Route 2 in Rumford on Monday night, police Chief Roy Hodsdon said, and made an initial appearance in Rumford District Court on Tuesday afternoon. Hodsdon said Merrill was attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Mexico around 7:30 p.m. Monday when he assaulted an elderly man. After the two were separated, Merrill fled on foot. According to Hodsdon’s affidavit filed in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris, the victim told police he was speaking to the group when Merrill approached and tried to strangle him. There was no direct communication between the two before the assault, the affidavit said. (read more at the Lewiston Sun Journal)

UNITY, Maine — From low-impact forestry to Scottish Highland cattle to contra dancing, the 38th annual Common Ground Country Fair is a celebration of Maine’s rural and agricultural traditions. Tens of thousands are expected to gather this weekend on 50 lush acres in Unity for the three-day fair that captures the essence of Maine and the bounty of the harvest season. “We strive for community and education while highlighting agriculture,” April Boucher, fair director, said. Run by Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, the fair unites leaders in agriculture like Ben Falk, author of “The Resilient Farm and Homestead,” with locals like Lisa Fernandes, who runs The Resilience Hub, a permaculture center in Portland. Both are speaking about permaculture, this year’s theme, which focuses on designing ecological landscape systems that work in harmony with nature to restore balance. As more and more people embrace the do-it-yourself lifestyle across Maine and the country, these age-old practices of homesteading and low-energy use are being re-examined for modern times. (read more at Bangor Daily News)